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Duncan talks with James Elkins about globalism, imperialism’s and all sorts of lighthearted stuff. This is audio that was recorded this summer at The Stone Theory Institute’s first iteration; 2007: The Globalization of Art, co-organized with Zhivka Valiavicharska.

Bad At Sports sat in on the whole thing and has pretty much every second on tape. We will be posting five sections over the next month or two as raw audio with a short introduction by Elkins himself. These will not be the polished “podio” that you have been used too but for those of you academically inclined it will be freaking awesome…

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This week Anthony Elms and Duncan talk to Marc Fischer about the Public Collectors project and other things.

Then Marc LeBlanc and Brian Andrews talk about how Marc is turning Japanese, he thinks he’s turning Japanese, he really thinks so…

The intro discusses how Philip von Zweck is a thug.

Anthony, please, dear God, talk in to the mic, seriously.

The following blurbs were shamelessly stolen from PVZ’s site:

Marc Fischer is 1/3 of the group Temporary Services, 1/11th of Mess Hall- an experimental cultural center in Roger’s Park (where he co-organizes the Hardcore Histories series), and an artist who curated the prison-themed exhibition “Captive Audience” at Gallery 400 earlier this year. In addition to believing that vinyl remains the superior format for the appreciation of recorded music, Fischer still refuses to own a fucking cell phone.

Anthony Elms overcame his youth as just another punk in Michigan to become the assistant director of Gallery 400, the editor of WhiteWalls, and a writer whose works have appeared in like every freakin’ magazine ever (except Artforum, whatever), plus in some exhibition catalogs for stuff that didn’t happen at VONZWECK, but was still ok. He’s pimped himself out at times; and participated in some panel discussions, but I think the panel discussion is always a bad idea, always. Anthony agrees.

On Public Collectors:
VONZWECK- as an entity, doesn’t care about art. You know it, you always have. But VONZWECK likes administration, and… stuff. Especially other people’s stuff! So does Marc Fischer. He likes stuff so much he’s started a whole new initiative to get to see it, and, being the unselfish soul that he is, to share it.

It’s called Public Collectors and it is founded upon the concern that there are many types of cultural artifacts that public libraries, museums and other institutions and archives either do not collect or do not make freely accessible. Public Collectors asks people that have had the luxury to amass, organize, and inventory these materials, to help reverse this lack by making their collections public. It’s voluntary and it’s free. Not about selling, or buying and not restricted to art. It’s about getting to see something you might not have access to otherwise and exchanges of knowledge.

For this – the kickoff, the ribbon cutting, Marc will be sharing one of his collections: records. That’s right actual records, long players, vinyl, what have you. Many will be on display; many more will be brought to the space for listening on request.

But the idea isn’t just for you to see Marc’s stuff, it’s for you to share your collection(s) and view other peoples’. Other collections are online and many more will be added soon at www.publiccollectors.org.Read more

Transplant patient Jennifer Sutton paid a visit to an exhibition in London called The Heart today, mainly to check out a particular item on display – her own heart.

Jennifer, 23, from the New Forest, UK, had a heart transplant at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, on 4 June 2007. She lent her heart to the Wellcome Collection for the exhibition to increase public awareness of donation and Restrictive Cardiomyopathy, the disease that would have killed her.

As you might imagine, she found the experience very odd and moving. “Seeing my heart for the first time is an emotional and surreal experience. It caused me so much pain and turmoil when it was inside me. Seeing it sitting here is extremely bizarre and very strange. Finally I can see this odd looking lump of muscle that has given me so much upset. It’s tremendous it has become an object of fascination and will get people thinking about the disease, heart transplants and organ donation.”Read more

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This week Clare Britt from Fraction Workspace stops by to give the run down on a couple of the European shows with Duncan and Joanna. Namely Documenta and Munster. She will be back next week To consider Venice.

Also the fine and wacky folks from The Alliance of Pentaphilic Curators show up to encourage Philip von Zweck’s friends to explain why it should have been them while they “roast the bastard” in recognition of the sizable grant he won this year.

The opening and closing songs of this week’s show are there largely to amuse Kaveh Soofi.
If you don’t get it, you don’t, sorry.